Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-07-08

dropped without ceremony on the name OF
Nichols & Leighton ON the corner of the
enveloped in her hand.
That afternoon Eleanor stood on the
deck of the little steamer plying between
her own city and the one across the bay,
and felt as if the golden leaf had been
thrown upon the dark wool of her life
web.
Cullen Leighton. the junior partner OF
the firm, was i'll the Office busy writ
ing when she called. ooh, yes, he
said, pleasantly, 81 remember: please step
this way"
She followed him half way down tho
long, shadowy emporium, where he took
down a box and spread its contents on the
counter for inspection.
How lovely!" she exclaimed, as she ran
her cultivated eye over the patterns dis
played.
"Yes, he replied with Sigh, @they are
quite pretty"
He had been taking an unconscious in
ventory of her dress, face, and manner,
and her exclamation had brought hin. back
suddenly to the fancy work.
| She chose her patterns and he rolled
them up while she in turn watched him;
strange that he grew SO nervous under her
seeming scrutiny! But he need not have
become SO uncomfortable, for she was only
vaguely wondering what Abner would say
did he know of her venture.
"What an interesting woman, Leighton
said to his ledger that evening, as the visit
full eyes and pensiye, refined face of the
new customer glided between his sleepy
vision ana the balance sheet. 81 wonder
why she is so very sad" he asked himself
presently; "looks as if she had buried her
last friend, yet she was not in mourning.
Well, we'll; perhaps she's very poor
drunken husband or something. God
knows there are worse things than DEATH"
And he sighed again as he closed the huge
ledger and took up his hat to leave the
store.
He, too, had had his heart experience,
and a shattered confidence and a black rib
bon running through a ring and tied around
a bundle of letters in q woman's hand
writing We're ali he had left now, excepting
a pain in his heart occasionally. And to-
night it had reused up for some reason,
with all its latent power in full force; Der
haps the sad face of The lady customer
from over the way had brought it all out
again in o sort of sympathetic affinity of
soul.
She had a heart acquainted with grief,
he was sure, and his heart went out to her
ina strange yearning to assist her into the
sunshine some way. The shadows We're
very hard to dwell in; he knew that. 1t
was hard enough for man, but for deli
cate blossom of woman to be left out of
the sunshine, why, it was too bad!
She should be we'll paid for her work, at
any rate, and if poverty was the cause it
could be remedied; but if it was heart
trouble, why, of course, gold and silver
were of no account as cures.
!, The summer had slipped it's cable and
gone the way of the sunsets, and Eleanor
Bylne had carried several rolls of work
across the blue waters of the bay to
Nichols u Leighton, and an abundance of
pin-money was the consequence.
And somehow it had grown to happen that
whenever she called, the junior partne,
, was in. Could it be he was SO devoted tc
business that he was an ever present digit
in the calculation, or-did he guess at bel
coming, and-well no matter. 1t WASH
safe to dwell on this thought.
5 Eleanor's face grew hot at the intuition
her heart was daily thrusting upon her: no
that Cullen Leighton was presuming in hi!
attentions, or Objectionable i'll his manne
toward her. On the contrary, he was stu
l. diously polite, as if trying to hide hi
/ hearts secret, but his kindness had wo1
the love pining away in the desolate soul O
t little Mrs. Byrne, and she was at last walk
ing up to the true drift of affairs. Thi
was Why her heart throbbed faster, ant
a flush crept up to the white temples
3 whenever thoughts of the junior partne
fitted like sunshine across her mind, and
t it must be confessed, such an occupation a.
l thinking pleasantly of young Leighton wa
. frequently INDUCED i'll, here of late.
t But as yet she would not own. even Il
. her own heart, that this friendship for tn
1 handsome MIR. Leighton was getting to be
serious enlargement of the affections, We
. she was conscious of it, nevertheless.
HOW SuOckeu even lie WOulu De ulu IL
+ know, did he realize what his kindness ha,
: done; his generous impulses doubles
S would harden into despising her for he
4 weakness. Well, he would never know.
Abner seemed more given over to tn
u trying times" than ever before, or did j
only seem SO to her because of her habi
S of contrasting his outbursts of tempe
. with the genial, soulful ways of her frien,
: over the way?
v She tried to love him, but he beat he
:, back with his nagging, fault finding dis
position. God only knew of the desperat
: struggles between duty and inclinatio
d within the poor tortured soul of the wife
g Sometimes duty came off conqueror, an
e she turned with renewed allegiance to he
d husband, but as often her heart yearne
:. with an unconfessed longing toward tina
o friendship-that unconscious other one
|, who never had given her rebuff
g Perhaps, had Abner Byrne known of hi
/" little wifes herculean efforts to love him il
K spite of his faults, he might have softene
n and held her nearer his heart, but Eleano
felt that she could not risk trying to make